Lucian and the Latins
Subtitle: humor and humanism in the early Renaissance
By: David Marsh.
Series: Recentiores : later Latin texts and contexts; Recentiores.
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
Subjects: Lucian, of Samosata -- Criticism and interpretation -- History.; Lucian, of Samosata -- Translations -- History and criticism.; Lucian, of Samosata -- Influence.; Dialogues, Latin (Medieval and modern) -- History and criticism.; Latin literature, Medieval and modern -- Greek influences.; Greek wit and humor -- Appreciation -- Italy.; Dialogues, Greek -- Appreciation -- Italy.; Satire, Greek -- Appreciation -- Italy.; Humanists -- Italy.; Renaissance.; Italy -- Intellectual life -- 1268-1559.
Description: In Lucian and the Latins, Marsh describes how Renaissance authors rediscovered the comic writings of the second-century Greek satirist Lucian. He traces how Lucianic themes and structures made an essential contribution to European literature beginning with a survey of Latin translations and imitations, which gave new direction to European letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The Lucianic dialogues of the dead and dialogues of the gods were immensely popular, despite the religious backlash of the sixteenth century. The paradoxical encomium, represented by Lucian's The Fly and The Parasite, inspired so-called serious humanists such as Leonardo Bruni and Guarino of Verona. Lucian's True Story initiated the genre of the fantastic journey, which enjoyed considerable popularity during the Renaissance age of discovery. Humanist descendants of this work include Thomas More's Utopia and much of Rabelais's Pantagruel and Fourth Book and Fifth Book.

An excursus relates the later influence of Lucian's True Story in Voltaire, Poe, and Mann.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-226) and index.
Table of contents: title: Timeline of works discussed; title: Lucian in the quattrocento; title: The dialogue of the dead; title: The dialogue of the gods 1: the scene in heaven; title: The dialogue of the gods 2: the scene on earth; title: The paradoxical encomium; title: The fantastic voyage; title: Bibliography; title: Index.